May 5, 2023
Written by UJJI Team
Programs that reward and recognise employees for their contributions to the company's objectives and their hard work are essential for a productive workplace. It lower employee turnover. Employee rewards are essential to keep them motivated to work and perform well in the workplace. Research supports the adage that "people will always work harder when they know they are appreciated."
One survey found that 79% of workers said that receiving praise motivates them to work harder and that 78% become more productive after receiving a reward. This article covers how to motivate employees, employee rewards, and the science of improving motivation at work.
You know what wonderful advantages you can offer your company, like increased worker happiness, productivity, and well-being. But are you having trouble figuring out how to achieve that?
It's possible that your approach to employee motivation is the issue. A key tool for developing a high-performing staff is reward and recognition. Employees that work for a company with a high-performance culture are inspired and motivated to give their all and take extra steps to ensure the company's success in the marketplace.
Thus, it is crucial for the company to first win over its staff before winning over customers. Additionally, employee rewards and recognition support organisational goals and values. They have the power to affect desired behavioural results. They are crucial in demonstrating an employee's sense of commitment to the goals of their organisations.
Finding ways to motivate your staff members can be a difficult chore for you. There shouldn't be. Employee rewards don't have to be expensive or difficult. With the correct knowledge and skills, you may become an expert at using rewards to increase motivation.
Consider these helpful tips if you are creating, updating, or executing an employee rewards programme:
You must specify exactly how employees can receive rewards. Employees will be better equipped to meet performance goals if they have a thorough awareness of what is expected of them.
Employees will be more motivated to work towards achieving the reward if they believe the system is fair. Employee rewards must be given out and under established rules. Never show favouritism or take shortcuts since this will affect the output of your staff.
When your staff achieves both major objectives and more modest milestones, you should give them rewards. This will guarantee that their behaviour is in line with corporate requirements and that their progress is acknowledged.
Team-based rewards were more successful at raising performance than individual incentives. If it is not already part of the company plan, team-based incentives for employee motivation should be. Additionally, there should be a significant investment in team-based rewards. Both the financial line of the business and employee cooperation may be impacted by this.
Although it is simple to stop praising high performers, this may be a fatal weakness. Ensure that your business continues to recognise and reward exceptional achievement to keep top talent on the team.
To ensure that they value the awards and believe they are worthwhile, involve employees in the formulation of the reward programme. Employee rewards should be chosen according to their feedback. Employees will be more motivated to put in extra effort to get rewards if they believe that they are worth the effort.
The impact of the reward has a temporal element. The effect of the award on influencing future behaviour decreases with the length of the delay after the employee achieves the goal. Reward behaviour that complies with performance expectations right away.
The consequences of various views on how to encourage employees are manifold. They differ depending on the viewpoints that leadership holds towards motivation. For instance, how those viewpoints are passed down and incorporated into practices, policies, and culture.
If individual preferences for motivation are taken into account, it shows how effective these strategies are. But, different motivational theories might direct our attention to areas of organisational behaviour that might need to be changed.
Herzberg's two-factor theory, for instance, contends that organisations must seek to enhance both motivational and hygiene components if they want to have the happiest and most effective workforce.
According to the theory, to inspire employees, you must ensure that everyone feels valued and encouraged, receives lots of honest feedback, and is aware of and confident in their ability to advance.
By providing workers with the greatest possible working environment, compensation, and supportive connections, you must ensure that hygiene factors are taken care of to prevent job unhappiness.
If your company struggles with the ethereal idea of self-actualisation and has a tendency to place too much emphasis on lower-level requirements, Maslow's hierarchy of needs can help. The creator of the Joie de Vivre hotel chain and Airbnb's head of hospitality, Chip Conley, discovered one solution to this problem by assisting his staff members in comprehending the significance of their roles during a staff retreat.
He invited groups of housekeepers to characterise themselves and their job duties in one exercise by assigning their group a name that reflected what they were doing and its nature. They came up with names like "The Peace of Mind Police," "The Clutter Busters," and "The Serenity Sisters."
They felt as though they were "creating a space for a traveller who was far from home to feel safe and protected" by using these labels, which gave them a purposeful justification and more meaning than cleaning. (Pattison, 2010). Conley encouraged his workers to work harder by demonstrating the importance of their jobs to them.
For giving and receiving frequent feedback and praise, the Hawthorne effect research and Weiner's three-dimensional theory of attribution have relevance. Employees can avoid their failures to a natural lack of abilities if their efforts are recognised. They receive precise feedback on where they might improve.
Even if the desired outcomes were not realised, rewarding employees for making progress or following the right procedure might help them view failures as teaching opportunities. This may help create a climate of psychological safety. It may support the idea that success can be managed by employing various tactics and establishing realistic goals.
Inspiring employees to desire to work for your business may foster loyalty, boost employee retention, and enhance customer service. These articles show the value of employee motivation and how to create a successful employee rewards programme.
You can try UJJI, which aims to offer users real-world rewards like gifts and discounts besides social recognition. So let's say a problem shows that your staff members aren't investing enough time in physical activity. Then their preferred sports brand can appear and offer them a 25% discount. These are rewards that provide individuals with the assurance they need to keep moving forward towards their goals.
